Irongirl

I couldn’t have picked a better community to experience my first pregnancy. Located in Kitslano, Barefit and Pregnant, owned and ran by Susi Kerr, is group fitness for prenatal and postnatal women. I’ve met a lot of friends through Barefit and Pregnant and my prenatal experience was much more enjoyable thanks to these classes. My friend Jolène, Triathlon enthusiast, has motivated many moms to train and participate in a sprint triathlon, Irongirl on August 7th in Vancouver. Irongirl consists of an 750m swim, 20K bike and 5K run.

My fitness experience is 15 years of ice hockey and several years of ball hockey with many, many team sports I like to dip and dab in (whatever keeps me fit right?). There was one time in my life where I regularly went to the gym. Those days are long behind me and these days with a baby and a husband who works 24/7, the gym isn’t happening! I’m drawn to team sports for many reasons: I love meeting people, time flies when you’re engaged and running around, and I don’t want to let my team down so I’ll show up. When it comes to the gym, it’s up to my mood. Do I feel like going? Oh I’m hungry, I’m going to eat. I better wait for my food to digest before I run. Oh look! It’s rush hour, I’ll go when it’s over. Nap. Wow, is it already rush hour again!? I’ll wait till it’s over… dinner time… better wait to digest my food. Gym is closed. This is the story of my life when it comes to going to the gym. What I DO KNOW about myself is I’m more motivated to workout first thing in the morning or it will unlikely happen.

To prepare for Irongirl, my main goal was to work on swimming. I’m a mental mess when it comes to swimming. I’ve gone snorkelling, scuba diving, and swimming in the water without a life jacket. Heather, doesn’t everyone basically go in without a life jacket? Ummm yeah, except for me. It’s the moment I’m in the water and I realize I have no flotation device as an aid, I panic and immediately swim to the closest thing to hang on to. This would be my biggest problem for the Irongirl (aside from being completely unfit for swimming) which is why I decided to do a relay Irongirl. I’ve teamed up with another mom who will be swimming the 750m while I bike 20K and run 5K. We are signed up and ready to go!